1711–1776

Philosopher

Upbringing.

Hume grew up in the countryside of southern Scotland, not far from the English border, where his father, a minor lord, had an estate. His father died when he was three. Hume entered the University of Edinburgh when he was twelve and finished there about three years later, a course of study that was considered normal at the time. Although he was encouraged to study law after taking his degree, he soon put aside any ambitions for becoming an attorney. Instead he began to read voraciously, so voraciously that by the age of eighteen he suffered a nervous breakdown. After recovering, he worked in a merchant's office in Bristol in England for a time, but eventually set off to live in France for three years. While there, he wrote his Treatise on Human Nature (1739–1740), an enormous work that sets out the full scope of...